Watch on the Rhine by LILLIAN HELLMAN Directed by LISA PETERSON
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McGuire Proscenium Stage / Sept 30 – Nov 5, 2017 Watch on the Rhine by LILLIAN HELLMAN directed by LISA PETERSON PLAY GUIDE Inside THE PLAY The Title • 3 Plot Synopsis • 4 Characters • 5 - 8 THE PLAYWRIGHT Lillian Hellman: Witness, Activist, Artist • 9, 10 What was said about the play? • 11 CULTURAL CONTEXT A Brief History of Fascism • 12 A Problematic Journalism • 13 BUILDING THE PRODUCTION From the Director: Lisa Peterson • 14 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For Further Reading and Understanding • 15 Play guides are made possible by Guthrie Theater Play Guide Copyright 2017 DRAMATURG Jo Holcomb GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves CONTRIBUTORS Jo Holcomb and Gina Musto Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415 All rights reserved. With the exception of classroom use by teachers and individual personal use, no part of this Play Guide ADMINISTRATION 612.225.6000 may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic BOX OFFICE 612.377.2224 or 1.877.44.STAGE TOLL-FREE or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in guthrietheater.org • Joseph Haj, artistic director writing from the publishers. Some materials published herein are written especially for our Guide. Others are reprinted by permission of their publishers. The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, The Guthrie Theater receives support from the National production, education and professional training. By presenting both classical literature and Endowment for the Arts. This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation new work from diverse cultures, the Guthrie illuminates the common humanity connecting by the Minnesota State Legislature. The Minnesota State Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from Minnesota to the peoples of the world. the National Endowment for the Arts. 2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Lillian Hellman wrote the first draft of Watch on the Rhine in August of 1939, before Britain and France had entered the war with Germany and long before the United States would. The play premiered in April 1941, still before the U.S. was directly involved. By the time of its premiere, a great deal more was known about the move of Hitler’s Germany toward global domination as well as the atrocities, committed by the Nazis. The Title The play’s title comes from a was set to music by Karl Wilhelm one of the most popular songs German patriotic poem and anthem (1815-1873). “The Watch on the in Germany, again rivaling the written in the mid-19th century: Rhine” was the rousing tune sung “Deutschlandlied” as the de facto Max Schneckenburger (1819-1849) by German soldiers as they headed national anthem. In World War II, wrote the poem Die Wacht am into battle during the Franco- the daily Wehrmachtbericht radio Rhein [The Watch on the Rhine] Prussian War of 1870. It was also report began with the tune, until during the Rhine crisis of 1840, particularly popular in Germany it was replaced by the fanfare when France renewed its claim to during the First World War. from Liszt’s “Les preludes” in 1941. the Rhine River as France’s natural The song’s title was also used as border. Germany feared that France The anthem may be most familiar the codename for the German was planning to annex the left bank to American audiences who offensive in 1944 known today as of the Rhine. Thus, we read: “The have seen the film Casablanca, in the Battle of the Bulge. Rhine, the Rhine, go to our Rhine, which “Die Wacht am Rhein” is / Who’ll guard our River, hold juxtaposed against the singing of (source: germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc. the line?” Like many other songs “La Marseillaise” in Rick’s café. org) and poems, “The Watch on the Rhine” called for rivalries between Audio of the anthem courtesy of various German kingdoms and the Library of Congress: https:// principalities to be set aside and www.loc.gov/item/jukebox.157/ Elijah Alexander (Kurt Muller) and Sarah for Germans to establish a unified Agnew (Sara Muller). Photo by Dan Norman. state. In 1854, five years after From World War I through 1945, Schneckenburger’s death, his poem the “Watch on the Rhine” was GUTHRIE THEATER \ 3 THE PLAY Plot Synopsis The play begins in spring of 1940 Bodo. The children are wiser than Mullers will be as well. Fanny says at the Farrelly home outside of their years, eccentric and multi- that isn’t the case and plans a Washington, D.C. Fanny Farrelly lingual. Kurt tells the Farrellys that celebration for Babette’s birthday. is anxiously awaiting the return of he is an ant-fascist and that they her daughter, Sara, from Europe, have been moving a great deal for While gossiping, Fanny reveals along with her husband and three his work and have come now to the that Teck has been playing poker children whom Fanny has never U.S. for a holiday. After living simply at the German Embassy with an met. Her son, David, who lives and jumping from place to place, arms dealer and German Nazis. The with her in the house, is having Sara is overwhelmed at being back discussion turns to politics, and flirtations with the married Marthe. in her childhood home surrounded Kurt plays a song on the piano that Marthe and her husband, Teck De by wealth. Teck is suspicious of was sung during the Spanish Civil Brancovis, are staying with the the Mullers and snoops through War when the anti-fascists resisted Farrellys having fled Europe as their luggage, much to the shock Franco. Teck begins to pry at the well. Their marriage is on the rocks, of Marthe. Suspecting that Marthe Muller children, trying to find out their unpaid bills are piling up, and is having an affair with David, Teck more information about their lives Fanny feels they have stayed far threatens Marthe to not interfere or and about their father. Meanwhile, past their welcome. try and stop him. Marthe returns from a trip to town to pick up dresses Fanny Sara and her husband, Kurt Muller, Eight days later, the extended has ordered for Babette, Sara and arrive unexpectedly early to the family is gathered together Marthe. A long distance call comes house along with their three relaxing. Teck announces he will for Kurt and he leaves to take it. children: Joshua, Babette and be leaving soon and suspects the Teck gets David to admit he bought a sapphire bracelet for Marthe and Marthe confesses she loves David. Marthe officially separates from Teck, saying she won’t leave with him and plans to move to Washington, D.C. Kurt returns and tells the family that he must go away. Teck then reveals he has read a news story in the paper about a man named Max Friedank who has been captured in Europe. He is part of an anti- fascist resistance group, and Teck believes that Kurt has been working with him. Teck blackmails Kurt to keep his identity secret. Kurt tells the Farrellys that he is a part of this resistance and that he is on a wanted list. As the play drives towards a suspenseful end, Kurt must choose whether to make a great sacrifice or lose all he has fought for. Jonathan Walker (Teck de Brancovis) and Kate Guentzel (Marte). Photo by Dan Norman. 4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Characters Two of the characters in Watch on the Rhine and the film Watch on the Rhine are Casablanca that stems not only from their addressing the same based on public figures question of American involvement whom Lillian Hellman knew: in the war, but also because the Teck de Brancovis (and by characters of Kurt Muller and Victor Laszlo were most likely association Marthe) and based on the same person — a Kurt Muller. The character Moscow trained agent named Otto Sara Muller was based on Katz. Katz operated out of pre- Hitler Germany and then France. Hellman’s acquaintance He had at least 21 aliases. He also Muriel Gardiner Buttinger. insisted that he was briefly Marlene Dietrich’s husband in 1920s Berlin, TECK DE BRANCOVIS: which was probably not so, though THE HISTORICAL LINK he was possibly her lover. He was Prince Antoine Bibesco (1878 – 1951) undeniably the model for the lead Lillian Hellman based the character PHOTO: GEORGE GRANTHAM BAIN COLLECTION (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS) character in Watch on the Rhine. of Teck de Brancovis on Prince Antoine Bibesco, a Romanian Katz was a charming, handsome, aristocrat, diplomat and lawyer, as high-rolling man, and it is possible well as a notorious cardshark who to identify him as an exemplary fleeced her of some six hundred figure of 20th century life — an dollars at the London home of Lady individual more or less self-cast in Margot Asquith in 1936. Bibesco a role that did not exist until the served in the Romanian legations vast tragedies of that era began to in Paris and Petrograd, and play themselves out after the rise later married Elizabeth Asquith, of Hitler and Stalin. Katz was not a a woman 20 years his junior. “spy” in the usual meaning of the Asquith’s mother thought Bibesco word. Very occasionally, he carried would be a steadying influence on some purloined documents from her daughter. “What a gentleman this place to that place, but that he is. None of my family are was not his primary duty. He was, gentlemen like that; no breeding rather, a sort of cultural courier — you know,” she wrote. founding and editing more political Jonathan Walker (Teck de Brancovis) (PHOTO: DAN NORMAN) magazines, in more places, than Bibesco, like Teck, was an one can conveniently count; writing opportunist, but not a Nazi.